The History and Culture of Pakistan (2059): Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, for revision and practice on this content. They are not reproduced past-paper questions, and the sources are written for this paper — they are not quoted from real documents or from any board paper. The structure and part tariffs follow the syllabus’s own Paper 1 layout; examination boards hold copyright in their own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available free from your board, since genuine board material is the most reliable guide to exact question phrasing and mark scheme wording for your specific examination series.

Related: The History and Culture of Pakistan revision notes

This is a complete practice paper built to the structure the 2059 syllabus sets for Paper 1 (1 hour 30 minutes, 75 marks). Section A is one compulsory question worth 25 marks, in four parts linked by a common theme; parts (a) and (b) are based on sources. Section B has four questions, each worth 25 marks in three parts worth 4, 7 and 14 marks; answer any two. The syllabus fixes the Section B part tariffs; it does not fix the Section A part tariffs, so this paper uses the 3, 5, 7 and 10 split set on the live May/June 2024 paper. The questions are spread across all three sections of the syllabus content: Question 2 on the cultural and historical background, Questions 1 and 3 on the emergence of Pakistan 1906–47, and Questions 4 and 5 on nationhood 1947–99.

Answer three questions in total: Question 1, and any two of Questions 2 to 5.

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Section A

Answer this question.

1. This question is about the Muslim League and the final years before independence, 1945–47. Study the two sources carefully and then answer the questions which follow.

Source A — written for this Marlbridge practice paper. It is an imagined diary entry in the style of a Muslim League volunteer in the Punjab during the elections of 1945–46, not a real historical document.

We reached the village at noon, six of us, all students from Aligarh. We carried the League’s green flag and a bundle of leaflets explaining what Pakistan would mean for the peasant as well as the landlord. The local pir had already told his followers that a vote for the League was a vote for Islam, and his word counted for more than anything we could say. In the evening the men gathered in the mosque courtyard and the boys shouted the slogan we taught them: “Pakistan ka matlab kya? La ilaha illallah!” Tomorrow a group of women from the League’s women’s committee will go from house to house.

Source B — a description of a cartoon invented for this Marlbridge practice paper. No real cartoon is being described.

The cartoon is set in 1946. Three men in British suits, labelled “Cabinet Mission”, are trying to hold together a large house of cards labelled “United India”. One card near the bottom is labelled “Groups”. On one side stands a figure labelled “Congress”, gently blowing on the cards; on the other stands a figure labelled “League”, walking away with his arms folded. A wall calendar behind them is marked “16 August”. The caption reads: “It was built to last ten years.”

(a) According to Source A, identify three ways in which the Muslim League won support in the countryside during the elections of 1945–46. [3]

(b) What message did the cartoonist intend to give about the Cabinet Mission Plan? [5]

(c) Explain why the Muslim League called for Direct Action Day in August 1946. [7]

(d) ‘The Muslim League’s success in the elections of 1945–46 was the most important reason why the British agreed to create Pakistan.’ How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer. [10]

Section B

Answer any two questions.

2. (a) Describe the reforms introduced by the British in the years immediately after the War of Independence of 1857–58. [4]

(b) Explain why the policies of Aurangzeb weakened the Mughal Empire. [7]

(c) ‘Urdu was chosen as the national language of Pakistan mainly because of its connection with the Pakistan Movement.’ How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer. [14]

3. (a) Describe the Simon Commission. [4]

(b) Explain why Jinnah produced his Fourteen Points in 1929. [7]

(c) ‘Allama Iqbal made a greater contribution to the Pakistan Movement than Chaudhri Rahmat Ali.’ How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer. [14]

4. (a) Describe the canal water dispute between Pakistan and India. [4]

(b) Explain why Pakistan took until 1956 to agree its first constitution. [7]

(c) ‘Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s domestic reforms between 1971 and 1977 were successful.’ How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer. [14]

5. (a) Describe the nuclear tests carried out by Pakistan in 1998. [4]

(b) Explain why Benazir Bhutto’s first government was dismissed in 1990. [7]

(c) ‘Relations between Pakistan and India improved between 1972 and 1999.’ How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer. [14]

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Answers

Part (a) of Question 1 is point-marked from the source. Part (a) of each Section B question is point-marked. Every other part is marked by levels of response; the level tables are set out after the answers, and the indicative content below is a guide to what can be credited, not a checklist — other relevant, accurate points should also be credited.

1. (a) One mark for each way correctly identified from Source A, up to 3. Candidates may paraphrase, but the answer must come from the source:

• students (from Aligarh) toured the villages to campaign;
• leaflets explained what Pakistan would mean for peasants as well as landlords;
• the local pir told his followers to vote for the League;
• the League presented a vote for it as a vote for Islam / used a religious slogan;
• rallies or gatherings were held in the mosque courtyard;
• the League’s women’s committee canvassed women from house to house.

(b) Mark by the Source message (5) table. An answer that makes no use of Source B cannot be credited.

• Surface features (Level 1): the Cabinet Mission is holding up a house of cards called “United India”; a card is labelled “Groups”; Congress is blowing on the cards; the League is walking away with arms folded; the calendar shows 16 August; the caption says “It was built to last ten years.”
• Valid inferences (Level 2 unsupported, Level 3 when supported from the source): the plan was fragile and bound to collapse; the plan to keep India united could not survive because neither party truly supported it; Congress was undermining the plan while appearing to accept it; the League had given up on the plan; the collapse of the plan would lead to trouble (the date of Direct Action Day).
• Contextual knowledge that can support an inference (top of Level 3): the 1946 plan proposed a united India with a weak central government and provinces grouped into three groups, which could reconsider the arrangement after ten years; the League accepted it in June 1946; Nehru then stated that Congress would enter the Constituent Assembly unbound by any agreement and suggested grouping would not happen, so the League withdrew its acceptance and called Direct Action Day for 16 August 1946.

(c) Mark by the Explanation (7) table. Indicative reasons:

• the League had accepted the Cabinet Mission Plan, but Nehru’s statement in July 1946 that Congress would not be bound by it convinced the League that Congress could not be trusted;
• the League felt the British were favouring Congress, especially over the formation of the interim government;
• the League wanted to show the British and Congress the strength of Muslim feeling for Pakistan;
• having won almost all the Muslim seats in the 1945–46 elections, the League believed constitutional negotiation had failed and that it must now act outside the negotiating table;
• Jinnah announced that the League was giving up constitutional methods and called on Muslims to show their support on 16 August 1946.

(d) Mark by the Extended judgement (10) table. Indicative content:

• Agree: the League won all the Muslim seats in the Central Legislative Assembly and a large majority of the Muslim seats in the provinces, proving that it spoke for the Muslims of India; the British could no longer treat Congress as the only representative of Indians, and every later proposal had to satisfy the League.
• Disagree — other reasons: the violence that followed Direct Action Day, beginning in Calcutta, showed that a united India could not be kept peaceful; Britain was weakened by the Second World War, and Attlee’s Labour government was determined to leave, announcing in February 1947 that Britain would go by June 1948; Lord Mountbatten concluded that partition was the only workable solution and brought the date forward; Congress leaders came to accept partition as the price of a strong central government; Jinnah’s leadership and refusal to compromise on the principle of Pakistan.
• Judgement: for example, the elections made Pakistan politically unavoidable, but British weakness and the communal violence of 1946–47 decided that it would happen so quickly.

2. (a) One mark for each relevant point, with an additional mark for supporting detail, up to 4:

• the Government of India Act of 1858 ended the rule of the East India Company (1) and placed India under the direct rule of the British Crown (1);
• a Secretary of State for India, with a council, was appointed in London (1);
• the Governor-General was also given the title of Viceroy (1);
• Queen Victoria’s Proclamation of 1858 promised not to interfere in Indian religions (1) and to respect the rights of the Indian princes (1), ending the policy of annexation (1);
• the army was reorganised (1), with a higher proportion of British troops and artillery kept in British hands (1).

(b) Mark by the Explanation (7) table. Indicative reasons:

• his long campaigns in the Deccan, from the 1680s until his death in 1707, drained the treasury and kept him away from the north, where rebellions grew;
• his reimposition of the jizya on non-Muslims in 1679 and other religious policies alienated many Hindu subjects;
• conflict with the Rajputs turned former allies of the empire into enemies;
• his treatment of the Sikhs, including the execution of Guru Tegh Bahadur, made them lasting opponents;
• the Marathas continued to fight him despite his conquests of Bijapur and Golconda, weakening Mughal control of the south;
• he kept power in his own hands and his sons fought over the succession after his death.

(c) Mark by the Extended judgement (14) table. Indicative content:

• Agree: Urdu was closely linked to the Muslims of the subcontinent and was written in the Persian–Arabic script; Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and the Aligarh Movement had defended it during the Hindi–Urdu Controversy; the Muslim League had adopted it as a symbol of Muslim identity; much of the literature of the Pakistan Movement, including Allama Iqbal’s poetry, was in Urdu.
• Disagree — other reasons: Urdu was widely understood across the provinces of West Pakistan as a common language, so it could unite people who spoke different regional languages; it did not belong to any single province, so choosing it avoided favouring one region; it had a rich literary tradition suitable for education and government; Jinnah believed a single national language was needed for national unity, declaring in Dhaka in March 1948 that Urdu alone should be the state language.
• Balance: the decision was opposed in East Pakistan, where most people spoke Bengali; after the language movement and the deaths of protesters in February 1952, the 1956 Constitution recognised both Urdu and Bengali as state languages.
• Judgement: for example, its link to the Pakistan Movement gave Urdu its symbolic importance, but its value as a neutral, unifying language explains why it was chosen for a new state.

3. (a) One mark for each relevant point, with an additional mark for supporting detail, up to 4:

• appointed by the British government in 1927 (1) to review how the 1919 reforms were working and suggest further reform (1);
• it was led by Sir John Simon (1) and all seven members were British, with no Indian member (1);
• it arrived in India in 1928 and was boycotted by Congress and part of the Muslim League (1), with demonstrations using the slogan “Simon, go back” (1);
• its report, published in 1930, proposed ending dyarchy and giving the provinces more self-government (1) and kept separate electorates (1).

(b) Mark by the Explanation (7) table. Indicative reasons:

• the Nehru Report of 1928 proposed joint electorates and rejected Muslim demands, including one-third of the seats in the central legislature, so Muslims needed an alternative set of proposals;
• Jinnah’s amendments to the Nehru Report were rejected at the All-Parties Convention in Calcutta in December 1928, convincing him that Congress would not protect Muslim interests;
• the Muslim League was divided into rival groups, and Jinnah wanted a single programme around which Muslims could unite;
• he wanted to set out clearly the minimum safeguards Muslims required in any future constitution, such as a federal system with provincial autonomy and separate electorates;
• the proposals gave Muslims a basis for future negotiations with the British, such as at the Round Table Conferences.

(c) Mark by the Extended judgement (14) table. Indicative content:

• Iqbal: in his Allahabad address to the Muslim League in December 1930 he argued that Muslims were a separate nation and proposed a separate Muslim state in north-west India; his poetry inspired Muslims and strengthened their sense of identity; he attended Round Table Conferences; in letters to Jinnah in the 1930s he urged him to lead the Muslims and to work for a separate Muslim homeland, and he was respected by the League’s leadership.
• Rahmat Ali: in his pamphlet Now or Never (1933), written while he was a student at Cambridge, he proposed the name “Pakistan” for the Muslim-majority provinces of the north-west; he set up the Pakistan National Movement in 1933 and circulated his ideas among delegates in London; the name he created became the name of the new state.
• Differences and limits: Rahmat Ali called for a completely separate and independent nation, while Iqbal’s address did not set out a detailed scheme; League leaders at first dismissed Rahmat Ali’s scheme as impractical, and he later criticised Jinnah and the Pakistan created in 1947; Iqbal died in 1938, before the Lahore Resolution.
• Judgement: for example, Iqbal’s influence on Jinnah and on Muslim opinion made the greater practical contribution, while Rahmat Ali’s lasting contribution was the name and the clarity of the demand.

4. (a) One mark for each relevant point, with an additional mark for supporting detail, up to 4:

• the Radcliffe Award left the headworks of several canals that watered Pakistan’s Punjab in Indian territory (1), for example at Ferozepur (1);
• in April 1948 India cut off the water flowing into these canals (1), threatening crops in West Punjab (1);
• a temporary agreement was reached in May 1948 (1), but the dispute continued (1);
• it was settled by the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 (1), with the help of the World Bank (1), which gave the three eastern rivers to India and the three western rivers to Pakistan (1).

(b) Mark by the Explanation (7) table. Indicative reasons:

• the deaths of Jinnah in 1948 and Liaquat Ali Khan in 1951 removed the leaders with the authority to settle disagreements;
• East Pakistan had a majority of the population, so there was deep disagreement about how the two wings should be represented in the legislature;
• there was disagreement about the role of Islam in the constitution, though the Objectives Resolution of 1949 set out the principles;
• the provinces and the central government disagreed about how much power each should have;
• the language issue divided East and West Pakistan;
• in 1954 Governor-General Ghulam Muhammad dissolved the Constituent Assembly, delaying the process further; a new Assembly finally agreed the constitution in 1956.

(c) Mark by the Extended judgement (14) table. Indicative content:

• Successful: the 1973 Constitution was agreed with support from the opposition parties and has remained the basis of Pakistan’s constitution; land reforms in 1972 lowered the ceiling on landholdings; nationalisation of key industries, and later of banks, aimed to reduce the power of a small number of wealthy families; education reforms nationalised many private schools and colleges and set up the People’s Open University; administrative reforms ended the special status of the elite civil service; labour reforms improved workers’ rights.
• Unsuccessful: nationalisation discouraged private investment and many nationalised industries became inefficient; land reforms were weakened by landowners transferring land to relatives; nationalised schools often suffered from a lack of funds and falling standards; the Federal Security Force was used against political opponents, and a military operation was launched in Balochistan; the 1977 election was followed by accusations of rigging, mass protests by the Pakistan National Alliance, and the military coup of July 1977.
• Judgement: for example, the reforms were ambitious and some, like the 1973 Constitution, lasted, but many economic reforms fell short of their aims.

5. (a) One mark for each relevant point, with an additional mark for supporting detail, up to 4:

• they followed India’s nuclear tests in May 1998 (1);
• Pakistan carried out its tests on 28 and 30 May 1998 (1) in Balochistan, the first set in the Chagai Hills (1);
• the tests were ordered by the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (1);
• they showed that Pakistan was a nuclear power (1), and 28 May is marked as Youm-e-Takbeer (1);
• the USA and other countries imposed economic sanctions on Pakistan (1).

(b) Mark by the Explanation (7) table. Indicative reasons:

• President Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismissed the government in August 1990 using the power given to the President by the Eighth Amendment;
• the government was accused of corruption and nepotism;
• it failed to control law and order in Sindh, where there was ethnic violence in Karachi and Hyderabad;
• it was in constant conflict with Nawaz Sharif’s government in the Punjab, which made governing difficult, and it had faced a no-confidence motion in 1989;
• it clashed with the President and the army over appointments;
• inflation and unemployment made the government unpopular, and it passed very little legislation.

(c) Mark by the Extended judgement (14) table. Indicative content:

• Improved: the Simla Agreement of 1972 committed both countries to settle disputes peacefully; diplomatic relations were restored in 1976; Zia-ul-Haq’s “cricket diplomacy” visit to India in 1987 eased tension; in 1988 Benazir Bhutto and Rajiv Gandhi agreed not to attack each other’s nuclear facilities; both joined SAARC, founded in 1985; in February 1999 the Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee travelled by bus to Lahore and the two countries signed the Lahore Declaration.
• Did not improve: India occupied the Siachen Glacier in 1984; the Indian army exercise Brasstacks in 1986–87 caused a major crisis; the uprising in Indian-held Kashmir from 1989 led to repeated tension and accusations; both countries carried out nuclear tests in 1998; the Kargil conflict of 1999 followed only months after the Lahore Declaration.
• Judgement: for example, periods of improvement were real but short-lived, because Kashmir and the nuclear rivalry remained unresolved.

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Levels of response used in these answers

The bands below follow the structure of Cambridge’s published levels-of-response marking for this paper (checked against the May/June 2024 2059/01 mark scheme). The wording is Marlbridge’s own summary. “Explains” means showing why or how, with accurate supporting knowledge — not just naming or describing a factor.

Source message (5) — Question 1(b)

Level	Marks	What the answer does
3	4–5	A valid inference about the message, supported by detail from the source [4]; a further supported inference, or one supported by both the source and contextual knowledge [5]
2	2–3	A valid inference about the message, not supported [2]; more than one unsupported inference [3]
1	1	Picks out a surface detail from the source without interpreting it
0	0	Nothing creditable

Explanation (7) — Question 1(c) and every Section B part (b)

Level	Marks	What the answer does
3	5–7	One explained reason [5]; two explained reasons or one developed explanation [6]; further explanation or development [7], with accurate supporting knowledge
2	2–4	Identifies or describes relevant reasons, 1 mark each
1	1	A valid general comment without specific knowledge
0	0	Nothing creditable

Extended judgement (10) — Question 1(d)

Level	Marks	What the answer does
5	10	Explains both sides at the top of Level 4 and reaches a supported judgement
4	7–9	Explains both sides: one explanation of each [7]; two on one side and one on the other [8]; further explanation on either side [9]
3	4–6	Explains one side only: one explanation [4]; two, or one developed [5]; further explanation [6]
2	2–3	Identifies or describes relevant factors, 1 mark each
1	1	A valid general comment without specific knowledge
0	0	Nothing creditable

Extended judgement (14) — every Section B part (c)

Level	Marks	What the answer does
5	13–14	Explains both sides at the top of Level 4 and reaches a judgement supported by accurate knowledge [13]; a developed, well-supported judgement [14]
4	10–12	Explains both sides: one explanation of each [10]; two on one side and one on the other [11]; further explanation on either side [12]
3	7–9	Explains one side only: one explanation [7]; two, or one developed [8]; further explanation [9]
2	3–6	Identifies or describes relevant factors, 1 mark each
1	1–2	Valid general comments without specific knowledge, 1 mark each
0	0	Nothing creditable

Mark check. Question 1: 3 + 5 + 7 + 10 = 25. Questions 2–5: 4 + 7 + 14 = 25 each. Paper: 25 + two Section B questions × 25 = 75.

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Where marks are usually lost

• Giving Section A too little time: it is a third of the paper and carries the only source-based marks.
• In 1(a), using own knowledge instead of taking the answer from the source.
• In 1(b), describing the cartoon without stating its message, or stating a message without pointing to anything in the cartoon.
• In the 7-mark parts, listing reasons (Level 2) instead of explaining how each one led to the outcome.
• In the 14-mark parts, arguing only one side: without an explained counter-argument an answer cannot go above Level 3, however detailed it is.
• Ending a 14-mark essay without a judgement that actually answers “how far”.
• Confusing dates between sections — for example placing the Simon Commission (1927) after the Nehru Report (1928), or placing the Kargil conflict before the Lahore Declaration of February 1999.

Timing

With 90 minutes for 75 marks, allow a little over a minute a mark: roughly 30 minutes for Question 1 and 30 minutes for each Section B question, of which about 16 to 18 minutes should go on the 14-mark essay.